This Could Be Us

Chapter Nineteen - Missing But Not Missed

{ Aria Chandler }

The next few weeks that followed my surgery, were half miserable and half bliss. 

The pain that followed the surgery was immense. The medication I was given helped decrease the pain, but not near enough as I needed it to. This meant I spent a lot of time at home, heavily medicated, and wasting my time away on my living room couch. When I wasn't sleeping, I was bored and lonely, and not even marathons of Dawson Creek helped cheer me up. I wanted so desperately to be at school, joking around with Anna, Kaleb, Carter - even Zach's company would have brightened my mood.

Anna and Kaleb came over to visit me after school when they could, but Carter was busy with basketball Monday thru Saturday. I only really got to see him on Sundays, which made me excited for his season to be over, as awful as that sounded. I missed him, and this was the least amount of time I had ever spent with him. Texting just wasn't cutting it for me. I needed more face-to-face, social interaction.

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It was a Tuesday afternoon, and I had just finished the episode of Dawson's Creek when Pacey finally sleeps with his older lady friend. A knock at the door startled me, and I carefully pushed myself into a comfortable upright position. I gritted my teeth as sharp shocks of pain made their way up my entire leg. There was another knock at the door.

"Come in!" I yelled as loudly as a could.

I took the ponytail off of my wrist and threw my hair up into a high bun. I waited a few seconds longer before my visitor entered into the living room.

"Hey," Zach mumbled.

I looked at him with such confusion. Nobody had seen Zach in almost a week. Someone said they saw him after the district basketball game with Paige, but he never returned to school on Monday, or the next day. Paige hadn't shown up at school either. The rumor going around was that they had run away together.

Now here he was, in my living room. His hair was standing in all directions, messy and a bit greasy looking. In fact, his hair wasn't the only thing that was messy. His clothes looked like they hadn't been changed in an entire week, and there was a smell coming from him that made me feel nauseous.

"Dude, you smell." I said, covering my nose and mouth - trying to keep myself from vomiting. 

"Yeah, I haven't showered in a week. I've... erm... been out of town." He admitted. His hand rested on the back of his neck like it usually did when he was feeling uncomfortable. "Can I talk to you?"

"You need to shower first." I replied quickly. "If you stand here any longer, I'm going to puke. In my room are some clothes Carter left here. You can borrow those."

He nodded, and walked to the bathroom. 

I was able to finish another episode of Dawson's Creek before Zach came back again, clean and stink-free. He was wearing a pair of Carter's sweats that fit more tightly on his figure than on Carter. Zach was significantly more muscular than Carter, so every piece of clothing fit tightly on him. He looked incredibly hot right now. Usually he wore baggier clothes unless he was working out.

I realized after a few moments that I had been staring. When I finally met Zach's eyes, he was looking at me - smirking.

"I wear it better than your boyfriend. I know." He continued smirking.

I grabbed a pillow and threw it at his face. "Keep dreaming, loverboy."

He bent over and picked up the pillow, then made himself comfortable on the couch next to me. His smirk quickly disappeared. Whatever was on his mind, when he first walked in, was now back.